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| Yesterday was quite possibly one of the best days I've had in the schools since I've been at Anderson! Tuesday night I wasn't sure how Wednesday was going to turn out and started going through all the different "what if..." scenerios (not the best idea to do the day before something huge). Thankfully God calmed all my fears in the morning and showed me all through the day how He had already prepared me for what I was going to face and how every detail was already planned out. When I met my teacher I realize that I couldn't have been placed with a better teacher! She is so easy to work with, confident with working with computers!! and new educational technology, loves the children as if they were her own, and already let me help out in lessons and different class activities. The students are wonderful as well! They are so loving and excited that I am there which caught me off guard to be honest.
I was so excited yesterday to talk to my teacher during her planning time about places I've been what God has done in my life while I was there and where He is leading me all while in a public school! She was sharing with me some of the thing she is learning in the years she's been teaching and different approaches she's used. Last year they tried one approach that dramatically helped the children in social studies which was really exciting! We had such a great time just brainstorming about how to help children in the class who have a tendency to be left behind and ideas of helping the kids become more involved in the learning process. (Man, I'm starting to realize how much I am sounding like my mom! ;) ).
One thing that I keep wondering is how all of this plays into where God is leading me. I was telling my teacher yesterday that I have such a passion for elementary students that grows more everytime I'm in the classroom but also have a huge passion for international students (especially college students) and both seem to be unrelated, like I have to make a choice between the two instead of having the two merge together somehow. I had such a great time yesterday getting to know the students in both blocks of classes and noticed that things I had been learning about naturally came out when I was working with them. All that I did came so effortlessly and was so rewarding and fulfilling at the same time. To be honest, it blows me away how much God has grown me as a teacher without me realizing it and how that also has helped me relate more easily to international students to help teach them about our culture and language. Continue to keep me in your prayers as I build relationships with the students in my classroom this year and that I would be able to impact them spiritually as well as academically even if it be without words. :) | | |
| So I had the intentions of keeping this site updated more often... and then real life set in somewhere along the way apparently :). Life has been going well the past month! All of the girls on my all are amazing! I love each of them and am sooo excited about this year and getting to know all of them! I didn't realize how much different the RA experience could be from one year to the next. I'm definitely enjoying it! :). So far things haven't been too crazy. I've been busy doing all sorts of things but thankfully it all came gradually so none of it was overwhelming. I think this coming week will be the last week of big changes so I should have a more definite schedule from here on out *theoretically :). YAY! I start my teaching placement at Belton Elementary on Wednesday teaching 3rd grade and I get to have the same placement for Student teaching in the spring! PRAISE THE LORD!!! (*can you tell I'm excited?)
One of my friends, Rachel, and I started a biblestudy on my hall this past Wednesday and had a ton of fun with it! The girls are great and I'm excited to see how it goes! Crusade started off two weeks ago here at AU and went well! I haven't been able to go but have had a great time coaching the leadership team and seeing them grow so much as leaders already this semester! It's so exciting to watch and is definitely a humbling experience to see leaders take over the tasks you've been responsible for as a leader for so long. God is definitely using them to teach me all kinds of lessons!
Needless to say life has been fun and full of different challenges. :) I have a feeling that will be the theme of this year as God continues to change my heart to prepare me for the life He has planned and as He leads me through different seasons of life. I'll keep you posted on how it goes :)! | | |
| Goodness a lot has happened it seems like since my last update. I feel like I have been traveling all over the place this summer and now I'm back at school wondering where the summer has gone. I'm excited and ready to go! I feel like I've had more of a chance this summer to spend time with friends and reconnecting with friends I hadn't seen in a while. Since the last blog, I've spent a week at the barn working with horses and also helping out with the Newspring children when they came out to the barn. I've spent time with friends from home, hung out with the family, visited relatives and met up with friends in Charleston, toured campuses in Charleston that I would be working with after I graduate, and hanging out with the family on vacation. I also finished up a book, Desiring God by John Piper, I started just after I got back from New York that I highly recommend! Aside from the Bible, I think I've learned more from that book than I've learned from other's I've read in the past. It will definitely give you a new perspective on how you view God, how you worship Him, and how you relate to Him in general! You should check it out! :)
I just got back an hour or so ago from a RA mountain trip full of fun bonding time, but also had a great time up there thinking about personal goals for this year as well as goals for my residents. I have a feeling this year is definitely going to be full of surprises and change but I'm excited about it! It will be and adventure for sure! I found out that I will have a student from Japan on my hall which I am more than excited about! At this point in time I'm not quite sure what the semester is going to look like other than class, practice teaching, RA duties, coaching the Campus Crusade leadership, and playing with the horses a bit during the week. I'll keep you posted as it gets closer to school. Some of my residents come in a week from today!! Some of them finish moving in the following Tuesday. Pray for my relationships with them, that it will be easy to get to know them and that we will be able to relate to each other easily. Pray also for my staff and the other area staffs as we are planning this semester and year for our residents. Pray that we keep Christ as the center in all of our planning and in our lives as we get ready to hit the ground running for another year. Thank you so much! Love you guys! | | |
| Goodness it has taken me a while to get this site updated since I've been home. For some reason I decided that traveling the state would be an awesome idea right when I got home ;). I've been able to spend some much needed quality time with my family and with one of my best friends going to Texas this fall. Right now I'm spending the week up at Anderson working with the horses at Newspring and working with children from Newspring out at the barn! I am having so much fun so far and still can't believe I get to work with two of my favorite things at the same time! :)
I was talking to Meryle yesterday as we were getting everything ready for our ride out at Newspring and was telling her how much different this summer was in New York compared to last summer in East Asia. I went to New York with the expectation that I would be learn a great deal about working with international students and have more experience sharing my faith with people from all different religious backgrounds. While I did learn some of this, God's plan for the summer looked a little bit different. I quickly realized that God was going to teach me a lot about myself and show me areas in my life that needed a lot of work. For some reason I half expected the lessons to come and go instead of being continuous lessons as they were. It seemed just as I was beginning to understand one lesson, God would open my eyes to another part of my life that needed attention. This kept going all summer and is still going. He has taught me so much about my selfishness, my pride, my resistance to vulnerbility, and so much more about my need for His grace and mercy daily.
The funny part about the summer is that God taught a lot of us on my team the same lessons and humbled us a lot this summer. What I really enjoyed the most about the summer is watching God grow everyone else on the Bridges track and teach them some of the same lessons in sharing faith and dialoguing with people about what they believe that I have learned from the past couple of summers and am still learning. The most exciting part is seeing my teammates trust God to give them the words to say in the middle of tough conversations and eventually see 2 international students put their trust in God and begin a relationship with Him!! What was just as encouraging is hearing from the Campus Track, who worked mainily with American College students, about their days on campus and finding out that they had about 18 students say they want to begin a personal relationship with Jesus!!
God did so much in the city this summer and is at work in so many places. Many of the people are closed off to hearing about Christianity but are very interested in being shown what Christianity is about and the love for people that only comes from the love God pours into us as His children. Please continue to pray for that city that the Christians that live there would love on the people in the city so they can better understand God's love for the world.
Many seeds were planted this summer with the relationships we built with students this summer as well as through the art exhibit we had two weeks ago. Pray that God would water those seeds and work on people's hearts so they are willing to begin a relationship with Jesus and really experience the fullness of life that only comes from Him! Thank you so much for your prayers and words of encouragment! I will continue to keep this updated in the coming weeks as school starts up and as Crusade gets going on campus! God is going to do some big things this year and I can't wait to tell you about what happens! | | |
| Hey Friends! I wanted to write a quick update to let you know that I got back into South Carolina safely! I got back in town about 4:15 today but feel like the day has been much longer than that :). To say the least, God has done some amazing things in New York City just as He always does all over the world. I found out last night at our project dinner that we had about 20 people pray to begin a relationship with Jesus this summer! Praise the Lord! How awesome is that?! This project has also been filled with many life lessons for many people on the Bridges team as well as on the Campus and Art's team. I will definitely write more in detail later but wanted to let you know that I'm back and hear a little bit of what God did this summer in NYC! Check back soon for more details! Thank you so much again for all of your prayers and words of encouragement! My team and I couldn't have done it with our y'all! | | |
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